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Politico: Tidy in its infancy
WASHINGTON, D.C. Politico is such a brand-new news organization, clutter hasn’t had a chance to pile up on the reporters’ desks. Each desk was tidy; I was horrified. Three weeks into this venture, former Washington Post staffer of 21 years John Harris led us into a sleek conference room and began to pontificate on the…
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‘I hope you won’t think Salzburg too provincial,’ the Austrian ambassador told me.
Don’t ask me how or why, but the International Center for Journalists chose me as one of two American journalists to travel to Austria for a six-week placement with a major Austrian newspaper. My employer, the Adirondack Daily Enterprise was generous enough to grant me a leave of absence to work with the Salzburger Nachrichten…
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Any Portage in a Storm (ouch!)
PORTAGE, Wisconsin It’s hard to be low-profile creeping up on a train with with four people and as many dogs. That was the lesson in a St. Paul (Minnesota) freight yard as a gaggle of trainriders tried to sneak onto an eastbound freight. I’d been let off at the edge of the yard by my…
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Accidentally Expatriated
SARANAC LAKE, New York It was a such a simple, fool-proof plan, only a genius at incompetence could foil it. And when it comes to ingenious incompetence, I’m your man. Canadian National has been sending a lot of freight down through Vermont along the New England Central, I’d heard, through to White River Junction. Why…
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Shades of respectability (tend to spoil everything)
SARANAC LAKE, New York Well I finally done did it. I landed me a writin’ gig. For a newspaper no less. Relocated on a week’s notice to the Adirondacks where I’m a staff writer for a small daily tucked up in ‘dem mountains, just shy of Quebec. It’s a groovy area, and I’m liking it…
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The Waiting Game
“And now we play The Waiting Game. Aw, The Waiting Game sucks — let’s play Hungry Hungry Hippos!” — Homer J. Simpson STOWE, Vermont — Ah, yes The Waiting Game. I’ve gotten to know the rules well this past month. Not to say I haven’t been active. On the contrary, since leaving Brooklyn I’ve hitched…
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Foamers and Fundies
BROOKLYN, New York — Capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Amman is just over a three hour drive from Syria’s capital Damascus. Both countries operate and maintain a fleet of comfortable air-conditioned buses that are efficient and inexpensive. Or you can take the train, which is even cheaper. Most Syrians give the train a…
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More Pedestrian Prose
DAMASCUS, Syria — While in Aleppo I had the pleasure to meet Syria’s “shadow tourism minister” a 24-year-old university student named Hassan.While the Syrian government fails to counter the Bush administration’s characterization of a rogue state terrorist training ground and other nonsense, Mr. Hassan spends hours on the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree chat board extolling…
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Lunch with Hezbollah, Tea with Hamas
One evening, after a hard day’s toil in the vineyards of Southern Illinois, I got an email from old friend about a conference being assembled in Lebanon. The idea was to bring together six American and six Middle Eastern journalists for a week and set ’em loose on one another. Or something like that. All…
